


Gifts

by jujymikey



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Red Robin (Comics), Teen Titans (Comics)
Genre: Bruce Wayne is a Good Parent, Christmas, Christmas Presents, Fluff, Gen, Not Beta Read, One Shot, Tim Drake-centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:55:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28319331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jujymikey/pseuds/jujymikey
Summary: Bruce has a hard time figuring out what to get Tim for Christmas. He ends up getting Tim exactly want he wanted, just not in the way he expected.
Relationships: Bruce Wayne & His Kids, No romantic ships - Relationship, Tim Drake & Bruce Wayne
Comments: 7
Kudos: 150





	Gifts

Ever since Bruce came back from being lost in the time stream, he hasn’t been able to get close to his third son. He’s been able to connect with his other kids, even more so then before he got lost in the stream, but for some reason he and Tim haven’t been able to. Before he got lost, Bruce and Tim were the closest he has ever been with any of his sons. They talked all the time and they even hung out when they weren’t working on a case.  
So when Christmas time starts approaching, Bruce is surprised when he has no idea what to get Tim. He’s only shared one Christmas with Tim back when Tim was Robin and his parents were away on some trip. He got Tim a camera that Tim used all the time, but Bruce doesn’t think he can give Tim the same gift twice. So Bruce decides to ask for some help.  
“What’s up B?” Dick asks as he walks into Bruce’s study.  
“Thank you for coming. I need your help with something about Tim.” Bruce gestures to the chair in front of his desk, “Please take a seat.”  
“What’s wrong? Is Timmy ok?” Dick asks, worry spreads over his face.  
“He’s fine. I just need help figuring out what to get him for Christmas.”  
“Oh, I don’t know if I can help with that.” Dick frowns, “I haven’t gotten him anything yet...”  
“You are the closet in the family to Tim, surly you have some sort of idea of what he’d like.”  
“We aren’t close anymore... not since...” Dick trails off. There’s so much that they’ve all left out about what happened while he was gone.  
“Since what?”  
“Since I gave Robin to Damian. He didn’t take it well... he hasn’t really talked to me about anything besides cases.” Dick shakes his head, then immediately perks up, “We should work together to figure out what to get Tim!”  
“Do you still have contact with the members of the teen titans? They know Tim pretty well.”  
“Yeah, I’ll text Gar about it.” Dick pulls out his phone and stands up, “I do have to go now, but I’ll let you know what I find out.”

This time of year, stores send out magazines with gift suggestions. Usually the only one that cares about these magazines are Dick, but this year Bruce is the one reading through them. There’s a week until Christmas and Bruce hasn’t gotten any gifts for his kids yet. That’s why he’s sitting kitchen isle surrounded by magazines.  
“Looks nice.” Cass sneaks up on him and looks at the magazine of men shoes.  
“You want some men’s dress shoes?” Bruce smiles at her.  
“They’re shiny.” Cass smiles and sits down in the chair next to him, “Whatcha doing?”  
“Looking for Christmas gifts.” Bruce says flipping through the page, “I have an idea for most of you guys, but I’m having a hard time figuring out a gift for Tim.”  
“I got Timmy a gift.” Cass flips through the magazines then points to a basketball, “I got basketball, because Tim is my basketball.”  
“I don’t know what that means, but I’m glad you found a good gift.” Bruce flips to the page of men’s graphic t-shirts, “Do you think Tim would like one of these? He likes anime, this shirt has an anime girl and says ‘oppai’.”  
“Tim wears suits and sweaters.”  
“He used to wear t-shirts.” Bruce frowns, when he was Robin, Tim would wear all kinds of cartoon t-shirts. It’s been only a year since then, has Tim really changed that much?

On the 23rd the Christmas tree is surrounded by presents wrapped in colorful paper. Four of those gifts are from Bruce, but he still can’t figure out what to get for his fifth kid. The problem is that a Bruce doesn’t know what Tim is into anymore. Does he still like video games? Or comics? Or action movies?  
Damian is the easiest one to buy for, Bruce got him some fancy paints. Dick is also really easy, Bruce just ordered the lucky charms but only marshmallows. Cass is a little more difficult, but it only requires a bit of thinking. He gets her an elementary school level English learning book. Jason is very difficult, he likes book, but Bruce isn’t sure which books he has and which he’d want. So Bruce got him a new armor set that Lucious created that has a built in chest taser. It seemed like something Jason would enjoy.  
Bruce has spent two hours at the mall looking for the perfect gift for Tim. After looking through each store twice, Bruce finally gives up and calls Dick, “Did you talk to your titan friend about Tim?”  
“Yeah, it wasn’t that helpful though. Gar just said that Tim likes to boss people around and paperwork.” Dick says over the phone, he can hear the others talking in the background, “I ended up getting him a new clipboard.”  
“I don’t want to get him office supplies. I don’t want him to think of our relationship as only work.” Bruce pinches the bridge of his nose, he can’t spend two more hours walking cluelessly through the mall.  
“Why don’t you try asking Jason? They’ve gotten pretty close since Jason stopped trying to kill Tim.” Dick suggests.  
“At this point I’ll try anything, put him on the phone.”  
“Old man, what do you want?” Jason huffs over the phone.  
“Do you know what Tim likes?” Bruce asks bluntly.  
“What? Is this a joke?”  
“No, Dick says you and Tim have gotten close and I don’t know what to get him for Christmas.” Bruce explains quickly, he doesn’t want to tell Jason about this, but he hopes that Jason will be mature about this.  
“Pffffttt, really B? You can’t figure out what to get your perfect little solider?” Jason laughs, “I almost killed Tim twice and I know more about him than you, thats so sad.”  
“Jay, I don’t have time for this. I really need your help.”  
“It’s really nice to hear you this desperate. This is so great.” Jason sighs contently, “Alright, I’ll help you.”  
“Thank you.” Bruce breathes out in relief.  
“I got Tim an action figure of some game of thrones character. Just get him something nerdy and he’ll like it.”  
“Tim doesn’t have any action figures in his room.” Bruce frowns, Tim’s room has nothing but the essentials in it. The walls are completely blank, no posters or anything like that. If there wasn’t a bunch of case files spread across the room, it wouldn’t look like anyone even lived in there.  
“Yeah, but he’s a nerd. He has to love action figures.”  
“I don’t think that’s true.” Bruce shakes his head, “Does Tim even watch game of thrones?”  
“Of course he does! Everyone watches game of thrones!” He can practically hear Jason rolling his eyes, “You’re a hopeless case.”  
Then Jason hangs up the phone, leaving Bruce to wander the mall for another three hours.

Bruce is starting to panic, it Christmas Eve and he still doesn’t have a gift for Tim. He’s resorted to snooping through Tim’s stuff. Tim is away on having a Christmas party with the teen titans, so he doesn’t have to worry about Tim catching him.  
Most of the room is completely impersonal, so Bruce starts really digging through all of Tim’s stuff. His closet, drawers, Tim’s laptop. He can’t find anything even a little personal, if she didn’t know that Tim lived in here he’d never have known that was Tim’s room.  
After searching through all of Tim’s stuff, Bruce sits down on Tim’s bed and tries to figure out what to do now.  
“Father, what are you doing in Drake’s room?” Damian stands in the doorway of Tim’s room, he’s holding Alfred the cat.  
“I’m trying to figure out what to get Tim for Christmas, it’s harder than I thought.” Bruce sighs.  
“Come on, Father. Even I’ve gotten Drake a gift.” Damian says, setting the cat down on the floor and she runs underneath Tim’s bed.  
“The gift better not be a knife to the stomach, because I will not allow any stabbing on Christmas.”  
“Please, I wouldn’t ruin a perfectly good knife with Drake’s blood.” Damian rolls his eyes, “I got him a membership at the Metropolis museum so that he’ll be at home less.”  
“That’s actually a nice gift.” Bruce sighs, his two sons that have tried to kill Tim are getting Tim a better gift than he is.  
“You’re a detective father, it’s not that hard to figure out Drake.” Damian pats Bruce’s head, “Drake is a very simple man.”  
“I’m sure I’ll figure something out in the next few hours.”

Christmas Day comes way sooner that Bruce expects. It’s 5 am and Bruce is just now getting home from the store, finally finding a gift for Tim. He didn’t have time to wrap it, so he bought a gift bag to put it in. Placing the bag under the tree, Bruce sinks down into the couch.  
“Long night, sir?” Alfred asks handing Bruce a cup of coffee.  
“Thanks Alfred.” Bruce down half of the cup in one go, “I’ve been out all night.”  
“With a lady friend I presume.” Alfred sits down on the couch with a cup of tea in his hand.  
“Actually, I was out shopping for a gift for Tim.”  
“Waiting to the very last minute I see.” Alfred shakes his head in disappointment, “I ordered master Timothy’s gift months ago. A tea of the month set. I’ll get that boy to like tea eventually.”  
“I just don’t know like I used to.” Bruce sighs into his cup, “I guess I’ve just realized that we aren’t close anymore.”  
“Master Timothy has been distant from the family for awhile now.” Alfred stares down into his tea, “I’m afraid the boy doesn’t feel like he’s wanted here.”  
“I didn’t realize it was that bad. I thought it was just me that’s fallen out of touch with Tim.”  
“The only reason Timothy moved back into the manor was because you’ve come back.” Alfred says and gives Bruce a small smile, “He really cares about you.”  
“I care about him too, I just can’t figure out how to show him how much I care about him.” Bruce drinks the rest of his coffee, “I couldn’t even figure what to get him, I just got him something random and I don’t even know if he’ll like it or not.”  
“I’m sure he’ll love whatever you got him. It’s the thought that counts. You just need to tell him that you love him.” Alfred pats his shoulder and stands up, “I will go make breakfast now and I’ll get you another cup of coffee.”

Christmas breakfast goes way better than most meals in this family goes. No one fights and no one gets stabbed. Then it’s time for presents.  
Dick is like a little kid, dressed in his Superman pjs separating his gifts from the others. Jason is sitting on the couch eating cookies. Cass is next to Jason sharing the cookies. Damian is sitting on the floor with Titus and Alfred the cat. Tim is sitting on the couch drinking his third cup of coffee. Bruce stand behind the couch nervously waiting for his kids to open the presents.  
“You don’t need to be so nervous.” Alfred smiles and gently pats Bruce’s back.  
“I’m not nervous.” Bruce grumbles into his sixth cup of coffee.  
Dick, Damian, Jason and Cass all open their gifts and love each one of them, even the ones that Bruce got for them. The only presents left are Tim’s. They look over at Tim and find him on his phone.  
“Timmy! The only gifts left are yours.” Dick says in a sing song voice.  
“Oh, were we taking turns?” Tim looks up from his phone.  
“Here my gift.” Cass hands him her gift.  
“Thanks, Cass.” Tim smiles and opens the poorly wrapped gift, “Oh wow a basketball. I love it.”  
“You basketball.” Cass bops Tim’s nose.  
“Here’s my gift replacement.” Jason throws his gift at Tim.  
Tim opens the gift and tilts his head, “Who’s this?”  
“It’s John Snow from Game of Thrones!”  
“I don’t watch game of thrones, I don’t really have time for tv.” Tim sets the gift down, “But thank you.”  
“You suck.” Jason throws a cookie at Tim.  
“Now my gift!” Dick hands Tim his gift.  
“Oh wow... a clipboard... I love it.” Tim smiles at Dick and Dick lights up. Bruce knows Tim enough that it’s a fake smile, but Dick doesn’t seem to notice.  
“I guess it’s mine turn.” Damian huffs and hands Tim a card.  
“Wow this is a really nice gift.” Tim says after opening the card, “You’re not going to stab me as payment for this gift right?”  
“Keep it up and I might.” Damian growls.  
“Here’s my gift, Timothy.” Alfred hands him his gift.  
“Tea.” Tim smiles soft at the box, “I love it.”  
“Here’s a gift from me.” Bruce grumbles and hands Tim the bag.  
Tim opens the bag and pulls out the anime t-shirt that says ‘oppai’ on it. Tim burst out laughing, “You don’t know what that means do you?”  
“....it has an anime character on it... and you like anime...” Bruce says dumbly.  
“I do, thank you.” Tim smiles at him.

After presents are done, everyone spreads out and goes on their own, giving Bruce time to talk to Tim alone. He finds Tim curled up in a chair in the library watches videos on his phone.  
“Tim, can I talk to you?” Bruce asks sitting in a chair near Tim.  
“Yeah, what’s up?” Tim asks setting down his phone. It’s weird his other kids call him B and Damian calls him Father, but Tim does his best not to address him.  
“I want to spend more time with you.”  
“...is this a joke?” Tim asks with confused look on his face.  
“A joke?” Bruce frowns.  
“Or is something wrong?” Tim sits ups, “Or is this about a case?”  
“This isn’t about a case or anything like that. I want to spend more time with you not doing work or cases or anything like that.” Bruce hates that he has to explain this. If he asked Dick or Damian to hang out, neither would ask if it was a joke, “Ever since I came back from the time stream, you and I haven’t had any personal time together. I’ve missed a whole year of your life and I want catch up on what I’ve missed.”  
“Oh....” Tim blinks at him, then blinks a couple more times trying to stop the tears from forming in his eyes, “I-if you want...?”  
“Of course I want to.” Bruce smiles, “You’re my son and I love spending time with you.”  
Instead of replying, Tim pounces on him. Bruce holds Tim close to him, it’s been so long since he’s held Tim. He feels smaller than the last time he’s held Tim, which concerns Bruce, but he decides to bring that up later.  
“So do you actually like the shirt?”  
Tim wipes his tears off his cheeks and lays his head on Bruce’s shoulder, “Bruce, ‘Oppai’ means boobs.”  
Bruce stares in shock as Tim just laughs at him.


End file.
